The Ageless WonderBy JACK CURRYMay 1, 1991Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers
pitched his seventh and final no-hitter on
this date. The following article appeared
in The Times two days later.

NEW YORK-He is John Wayne with
a baseball cap. He is Betty Grable
with a magnificent arm. Because he
throws the ball so hard and has done it for
25 years, Nolan Ryan makes people stop
what they are doing and watch him. And
baseball fans, it seems, can never get
enough of this wondrous 44-year-old
pitcher.

On an evening when the Texas Rangers
right-hander upstaged even Rickey
Henderson's base-stealing heroics with a
record seventh no-hitter, Ryan's nationally
televised exploits heightened his stature to
almost mythic proportions. They are
already naming a portion of Route 288
near his hometown, Alvin, Tex., "The
Nolan Ryan Expressway." After another
no-hitter, maybe they will rename the
town.

"No contest, it's Ryan," said Frank
Robinson, a former teammate of Ryan and
the manager of the Baltimore Orioles,
when asked what was the bigger baseball
story on a historic Wednesday in May. "The
thing that I admire most is that he's a complete
pitcher, 150 percent better than he
was at any other time in his career. Hitters
go up there, now, with hardly a chance."

Dozens of Texas Ranger fans belatedly
raced to Arlington Stadium after Ryan held
the Toronto Blue Jays without a hit for
seven innings because they wanted to witness
the remnants of a slice of baseball
history. They wanted tickets for a game
that was almost over so they
could see Ryan go for it one
more time. The loyal fans
were not alone in their adulation
for this athlete for the
ages. Everyone wanted to see
Ryan at his finest, whether it
was Ryan's next-door neighbor,
who listened to the game
on the radio in his pickup
truck because it offered the
keenest reception, or Reid
Ryan, who stopped writing a
college book report to watch
his father pitch the last two
innings of the game on cable
television, or the San Diego
Padres and the New York
Mets, who put postgame buffets
on hold to crowd around
television sets in clubhouses
at Shea Stadium.

When ESPN zoomed Ryan
into living rooms, taverns and baseball stadiums
throughout the country for the
eighth inning of the unfolding masterpiece,
the spontaneity gave the event added significance.
With the emergence of cable television,
more people are treated to out-oftown
baseball games, and Ryan looks bigger
than life. Maybe he is.

"There's always one guy that defies the
odds," said Joe Carter of the Blue Jays.
"He's the guy."

Ryan did not disappoint the late-comers
at Arlington who gambled that the nohitter
would remain intact. His strikeout of
Roberto Alomar to end the game came on
a 93-mile-per-hour fastball and was his
16th. Afterward, as usual, he rode an exercise
bicycle for a half-hour with his right
arm packed in ice. "I haven't gotten bored
with no-hitters yet," Ryan said.

Associated Press

Nolan Ryan, the biggest star in Texas, waves to the Arlington Stadium crowd after pitching the seventh no-hitter of his career, three
more than any other pitcher. He was 44 at the time, and worked out on a bicycle immediately afterward.Runners Up

1991: Rickey Henderson of the Oakland A's passed Lou Brock of the St. Louis
Cardinals as baseball's all-time leader with 939 stolen bases when he swiped
third in a game against the Yankees at Oakland Coliseum. The game was
halted for eight minutes as Brock came onto the field and toasted Henderson
as "the greatest competitor that ever ran the bases."

1884: Moses Fleetwood Walker, a catcher, made his debut with the Toledo Blue
Stockings of the American Association, then a major league, becoming the
first black player in major league history. Walker, who batted .263 in 42
games in his only season, predated Jackie Robinson (see April 10), the first
modern African-American major leaguer, by 63 years.

1999: Charismatic, a 31‚1 long shot trained by D. Wayne Lukas and ridden by Chris
Antley, won the 125th running of the Kentucky Derby by a neck over Menifee
before a Churchill Downs crowd of 151,051. Charismatic returned $64.60 on
a $2 bet to win, the third-largest payoff in Derby history.